Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

[ATC]

This game is the new Crysis for GPU benchmarks

Im getting decent FPS on a PC with GeForce 1080 Ti.

For sure. IIRC the old flight sims were heavy too, I was always struggling to get smooth performance in FSX.

To get a clean exterior view with no junk on the screen, use the drone camera.

The weather effects in this are incredible. In other sims, even with add-ons to enhance the weather, the clouds are more or less just 2D bitmaps - you can see them rotate like cardboard cutouts if you look at them from the wrong angle. In FS2020, though, they're 3D and you can navigate through gaps in them.
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Those are great. Removing the HUD would be nice. Wish there was a way to do it without using the drone view. I like the movements axes in the normal external view, I'm still figuring out if there's an easy way to move around like that in drone view, it seems more awkward.

 

[garnerx]

Those are great. Removing the HUD would be nice. Wish there was a way to do it without using the drone view. I like the movements axes in the normal external view, I'm still figuring out if there's an easy way to move around like that in drone view, it seems more awkward.

I have an Xbox controller plugged in purely for screenshots, so I can switch to the drone view when the aircraft is fairly stable and move around using that. There's also the live pause button, so if you want time to frame an action shot you can use that and move around while the plane is paused.

Try pausing it, then go into the weather tab at the top of the screen and change the weather or time of day. It all happens in realtime, dramatic sunset shots, day to night, rain to sun to clouds to snow... It's a screen-grabber's dream!

 

[ATC]

I have an Xbox controller plugged in purely for screenshots, so I can switch to the drone view when the aircraft is fairly stable and move around using that. There's also the live pause button, so if you want time to frame an action shot you can use that and move around while the plane is paused.

Try pausing it, then go into the weather tab at the top of the screen and change the weather or time of day. It all happens in realtime, dramatic sunset shots, day to night, rain to sun to clouds to snow... It's a screen-grabber's dream!
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Using the pause is a good idea, thanks. Which airport were you taking off from there?

 

[garnerx]

Using the pause is a good idea, thanks. Which airport were you taking off from there?

That's Innsbruck, from the list of 'star' airports.

 

[garnerx]

I just completed the Patagonia bush flight. That's a really good feature, lots of short-ish hops with text descriptions to guide you to the next point of interest on a slow, winding route.

There's a flight up the slope of a glacier that had me wondering if the engine would die on me. On another leg I completely emptied the fuel in one tank - I'd been wondering why it kept leaning to the right - and had to ditch in a lake because in the 20 seconds I had left before hitting the water I couldn't figure out why the engine kept stopping or how to fix it (the fuel switch is down by the pilot's knee). If you try a bush flight, note that it doesn't get automatically refueled between stages.

I've logged a few hours now and I think it's by far the best flight sim I've played. It's amazing value when you consider how much it costs to upgrade P3D and Xplane with weather engines and scenery, and even then they don't really come up to this level of quality.

There are some minor glitches here and there, and a fairly major one in that when you're interacting with gauges, maps, ATC buttons, etc, on a second monitor, the main window stops receiving inputs from the flight controls.

Also, the logbook isn't very good. I know the underlying sim keeps a record of many things, but the logbook keeps most of it hidden and you can't sort it by different columns. There's currently no way to edit / combine / delete records, so mine is littered with "flights" of zero seconds where I was just sitting on the ground, calibrating the controls.

 

[Richdmoore]

I just completed the Patagonia bush flight. That's a really good feature, lots of short-ish hops with text descriptions to guide you to the next point of interest on a slow, winding route.

There's a flight up the slope of a glacier that had me wondering if the engine would die on me. On another leg I completely emptied the fuel in one tank - I'd been wondering why it kept leaning to the right - and had to ditch in a lake because in the 20 seconds I had left before hitting the water I couldn't figure out why the engine kept stopping or how to fix it (the fuel switch is down by the pilot's knee). If you try a bush flight, note that it doesn't get automatically refueled between stages.

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I've logged a few hours now and I think it's by far the best flight sim I've played. It's amazing value when you consider how much it costs to upgrade P3D and Xplane with weather engines and scenery, and even then they don't really come up to this level of quality.

There are some minor glitches here and there, and a fairly major one in that when you're interacting with gauges, maps, ATC buttons, etc, on a second monitor, the main window stops receiving inputs from the flight controls.

Also, the logbook isn't very good. I know the underlying sim keeps a record of many things, but the logbook keeps most of it hidden and you can't sort it by different columns. There's currently no way to edit / combine / delete records, so mine is littered with "flights" of zero seconds where I was just sitting on the ground, calibrating the controls.

I have done a few short hops so far, just on my own and not doing anything other than just playing around.

The load times are pretty long, and once the sim loads give it 1 minute before you do anything to simply allow it to stop stuttering.

I have been impressed with the visuals, I landed (turned off damage) on my father's street and taxied up to the house. I was a generic house, but it did have the very small lake/drainage pond across the street (which made it easy to find.) I can see this being good for VFR navigation exercises. They did turn a restaurant down the street into a hotel (I think.)

I found the control setup really weird, but I think I have my trackir/honeycomb alpha/logitech throttle/thrustmaster thrp rudders working now. I still need to set up some keyboard commands.

I have popped out some of the screens. All of them seem kind of low resolution when popped out, but honestly I am use to the real thing on my current assigned real life aircraft, so it may be just my perception. When the screens pop out, they only do the screen, no bezels. That makes it hard to use with something like the g1000, as you still need to access the in cockpit controls. The good thing is that the touch screen avionics, such as whatever the X-cub has work very well popped out with a mouse.

I am looking forward to the sim connect fixes that are coming up, and the third party support by others that will only improve the sim over time. I bet in a couple of years, the IFR portion of the sim will be as good as the VFR portion.

 

[garnerx]

I have done a few short hops so far, just on my own and not doing anything other than just playing around.

The load times are pretty long, and once the sim loads give it 1 minute before you do anything to simply allow it to stop stuttering.

I have been impressed with the visuals, I landed (turned off damage) on my father's street and taxied up to the house. I was a generic house, but it did have the very small lake/drainage pond across the street (which made it easy to find.) I can see this being good for VFR navigation exercises. They did turn a restaurant down the street into a hotel (I think.)

I've been doing some comparisons with a fully loaded P3D, and yes- the load times are slow. Cutting out menu screens, from the desktop P3D takes around 3'30" to get to the tarmac, FS2020 takes around 5'00. Both from separate dedicated SSDs. Both have a similar period of stuttering while assets are streamed in (FS) or loaded from third-party files (P3D).

I took some screens to show the difference in an area that shows FS2020 at its worst (in auto-generated ground vs hand-made ground) and where it does have a big advantage (from altitude vs any hand-made scenery). This is from an airport that the base version of FS2020 has auto-generated (CYSE Squamish, north of Vancouver), and to get the whole scene to this level in P3D required Orbx vector maps, Orbx global textures, Orbx Pacific NW scenery, Orbx CYSE airport and surrounding area, Active Sky weather engine and Active Sky clouds, Orbx trees... All of that together cost me considerably more than the most expensive version of FS2020 (which I'm currently playing for "free" on Game Pass).

There are things I like about both, but on the ground in an Orbx region vs this particular auto-gen FS2020 region I think P3D looks better. However, FS2020 runs smoother throughout and looks this good over the entire world, whereas P3D only gets to this standard in a few locations if you pay for a ton of upgrades.

^P3D

^FS

^ P3D

^FS

 

[Richdmoore]

I think the biggest hurdle for me (and I suspect many others on this forum) is the fact that there isn't a macOS version. It would be hard to justify two computers (and since I can't reuse my 2017 iMac's wonderful screen on a pc) it would mean replacing two computers to get a good setup that I can switch between both ecosystems. (I really wish apple had made an affordabe headless xMac/consumer Mac Pro, at least for bootcamp.)

For grins, I did install this under parallels, but the performance doesn't meet the minimum requirements and is problematic even during the loading screens. No surprise.

Right now I will follow the developments, look at what the eventual xbox version limitations are, and do some flying under bootcamp. I can imagine switching at some point, unless Xplane 12 really steps up it's game with modern avionics, and better scenery/clouds.

 

[maflynn]

It would be hard to justify two computers

Would bootcamp be an option?

 

[Richdmoore]

Would bootcamp be an option?

I am doing that now (on an external thunderbolt 1 SSD drive, 2017 iMac.) It is working for now (Medium settings, 1080p.) No shutdowns so far like another user on this thread has reported, but haven't flown a several hour flight yet either. I have also heard some places are unflyable, such as NYC due to all the structures that have to be rendered. I haven't tried that yet however.

Long term, with the transition to Apple Silicon, bootcamp will no longer be an option for future purchases, and this sim requires every resource you can throw at it (and them some, it is very future proofed) such as the best graphic cards and top of the line cpu anyway.

All the indications are that this sim isn't a yearly or bi-yearly release, rather it is a platform that will be updates for many years, with the extended costs to maintain it being paid for with xbox game pass/in app purchases of airplanes/handcrafted scenery and other enhancements.

Personally, due to the fact that I like apple ecosystem so much, I can easily justify staying with apple, but my heart wants an expandable PC so I can swap parts to decrease the load times and increase the performance of the sim (which I will expect to get worse as more complicated add-ons are released.)

It is what it is. Unless the next X-plane really surpasses this, at some point I will probably have to get both types of computers, and figure out how to have switchable screens.

I may wind up in the doghouse with my wife for getting a second computer just for a "game."

 

[wardie]

Would bootcamp be an option?

Yes I’ve just tried it and done a few of the basic training tasks. I’ve got a 2017 27” i7 1TB SSD with AMD 580 and Bootcamp is installed on the internal drive partition, but with apps and data on an external Samsung 1TB T5.

By default it went into full 5K mode, high settings (eek) at a dreadful 5-10fps very jerky. I dropped it to 1440p and that was buttery smooth to play. Don’t know exact fps (how do I tell?) but it was great.

What a great simulator. Tempting me to invest in a controls setup.

 

[iF34R]

Here's a little footage of me trying it out on my late 2012 iMac lol.

 

[pdoherty]

I am doing that now (on an external thunderbolt 1 SSD drive, 2017 iMac.) It is working for now (Medium settings, 1080p.) No shutdowns so far like another user on this thread has reported, but haven't flown a several hour flight yet either. I have also heard some places are unflyable, such as NYC due to all the structures that have to be rendered. I haven't tried that yet however.

Long term, with the transition to Apple Silicon, bootcamp will no longer be an option for future purchases, and this sim requires every resource you can throw at it (and them some, it is very future proofed) such as the best graphic cards and top of the line cpu anyway.

All the indications are that this sim isn't a yearly or bi-yearly release, rather it is a platform that will be updates for many years, with the extended costs to maintain it being paid for with xbox game pass/in app purchases of airplanes/handcrafted scenery and other enhancements.

Personally, due to the fact that I like apple ecosystem so much, I can easily justify staying with apple, but my heart wants an expandable PC so I can swap parts to decrease the load times and increase the performance of the sim (which I will expect to get worse as more complicated add-ons are released.)

It is what it is. Unless the next X-plane really surpasses this, at some point I will probably have to get both types of computers, and figure out how to have switchable screens.

I may wind up in the doghouse with my wife for getting a second computer just for a "game."

I use one of these between a PC and a Mac Mini. Shares display, keyboard, mouse and audio and works fine.

2 Port KVM Switch 1920 x 1200 - HDMI and USB 2.0 Hub 3.9 ft Cables SY-KVM31034

Syba SY-KVM31034 2 port USB 2.0 HDMI 1.3 KVM switch allow users to share a HDMI monitor, an USB keyboard and mouse between two computers. Users can switch between computers using a Manual switch located on the KVM or by using keyboard hot keys. The Syba SY-KVM31034 offers an out-of-box solution w...

www.amazon.com

 

[LeeW]

Not gonna lie, this is fantastic, I got the xbox game pass thing for $1 and downloaded it to try, runs amazing on my PC. Seriously thinking about getting a flight stick as the keyboard controls are hopeless for a decent experience. Maybe..

 

[vrDrew]

FS 2020 is slated to spur several billion dollars in hardware sales over the next year.

It's not surprising. From what I've seen and read, to get a "future-proof" (ha ha) system you are looking at 32 gig of RAM and 16 gig VRAM. A top of the line graphics card, and probably water cooling too. That's $2000 easily. And then throw in another $500-$1000 for a decent yoke/joystick/throttle and rudder pedals.

The thing is, FS 2020 is a tantalising glimpse of what current computer tech can really do. But for $3000+ I could probably log a few hours in an actual real airplane.

 

[psingh01]

FS 2020 is slated to spur several billion dollars in hardware sales over the next year.

It's not surprising. From what I've seen and read, to get a "future-proof" (ha ha) system you are looking at 32 gig of RAM and 16 gig VRAM. A top of the line graphics card, and probably water cooling too. That's $2000 easily. And then throw in another $500-$1000 for a decent yoke/joystick/throttle and rudder pedals.

The thing is, FS 2020 is a tantalising glimpse of what current computer tech can really do. But for $3000+ I could probably log a few hours in an actual real airplane.

For $3k you’ll be well on your way to meeting requirements for a license.

 

[thisismyusername]

But for $3000+ I could probably log a few hours in an actual real airplane.

As someone who has a few thousand hours and flew in the airlines for a few years, I'd take Flight Simulator over the real thing these days. I think it's more fun plus it's a hell of a lot cheaper in the long run.

 

[mainelyme]

As someone who has a few thousand hours and flew in the airlines for a few years, I'd take Flight Simulator over the real thing these days. I think it's more fun plus it's a hell of a lot cheaper in the long run.

I'd love to hear more about why you say this. I've actually been thinking about getting my pilot's license and buying a small plane, as soon as my wife and I can move back to New England. It's something I've wanted to do my whole life.

 

[thisismyusername]

I'd love to hear more about why you say this. I've actually been thinking about getting my pilot's license and buying a small plane, as soon as my wife and I can move back to New England. It's something I've wanted to do my whole life.

Don't get me wrong. The real thing is definitely amazing and getting your license can be a very rewarding experience. I highly recommend it if you can really afford it and if it's something you've always wanted to do. There are, however, a few reasons I prefer flight sims these days:
1) It's a very expensive hobby. I'm not sure what the current rates are these days but I'd expect to pay around $10,000 for a private pilot cert. Planes are also very expensive. You're probably looking at somewhere around $50,000 for something that's at least 50 years old. Of course I have no idea what your current financial status is, nor is it any of my business, but don't go into debt over a hobby.
2) I can instantly go anywhere I want in a flight sim, do all kinds of crazy insane stuff, and not have to worry about weather/bumps/etc.
3) While I'm not going to go as far as saying flying is dangerous, it's not exactly the safest hobby. Even if you do everything right, there's a decent amount of risk involved in the general aviation world. For example, you're going to be flying planes that could quite possibly be older than you and based on engine technology from the 1950s.
4) You can't pause it when you have to go to the bathroom (pro tip: keep an empty bottle in your flight bag)

These days, I'm good sitting at my desk in a pair of pajamas and playing a video game

Please excuse me while I put on my old flight instructor hat for a minute. If you do decide to get your license, don't stop at the private pilot cert. Get your instrument rating and, if you get your own plane, get one that's IFR certified. Even if you never plan on flying in bad weather, it can change quickly and having both can save your butt. There have been several times when I've had to file an IFR flight plan in the air to get back home because unexpected weather rolled in. Likewise, frequently practice engine out procedures. Dead-stick landings aren't like riding a bike; you have to routinely practice them to be successful when it really matters.

 

[vrDrew]

One thing I'll say about FS 2020: It's really made me appreciate how much work real pilots have to do. And how much training they need to master.

Just learning how to communicate with Air Traffic Control is a skill all in its own. And putting together a flight plan, especially around built-up areas, that keeps the plane at the correct altitudes, is something that requires attention to detail. And that's before all the math involved in working out weights, and runway lengths, and correct V1 speeds.

Many modern aircraft have Autopilot systems. But they just maintain headings, altitudes, and keep the wings level - while the pilot is busy keeping track of the ten thousand other things needed to safely navigate through modern airspace.

The more realism they build into Flight Simulator, the more I respect the work of real aviators.

 

[garnerx]

I've just completed my contribution to the multi-billion-dollar flight sim economy. This is quite a step up from my old CH Products stuff!

Here's a bonus shot of it in wife-avoidance stealth mode:

 

[Glideslope]

Yes I’ve just tried it and done a few of the basic training tasks. I’ve got a 2017 27” i7 1TB SSD with AMD 580 and Bootcamp is installed on the internal drive partition, but with apps and data on an external Samsung 1TB T5.

By default it went into full 5K mode, high settings (eek) at a dreadful 5-10fps very jerky. I dropped it to 1440p and that was buttery smooth to play. Don’t know exact fps (how do I tell?) but it was great.

What a great simulator. Tempting me to invest in a controls setup.

If you have the budget and don’t mind waiting, look at the Honeycomb Alpha Yoke and the Bravo Throttle Quadrant. Amazing quality, adjustability, and feel. They have Charlie Rudder Pedals in final trial for release in 2021.

Having a VERY FAST IP connection is the most critical part of this sim IMO.

Enjoy. 😎

 

[Glideslope]

One thing I'll say about FS 2020: It's really made me appreciate how much work real pilots have to do. And how much training they need to master.

Just learning how to communicate with Air Traffic Control is a skill all in its own. And putting together a flight plan, especially around built-up areas, that keeps the plane at the correct altitudes, is something that requires attention to detail. And that's before all the math involved in working out weights, and runway lengths, and correct V1 speeds.

Many modern aircraft have Autopilot systems. But they just maintain headings, altitudes, and keep the wings level - while the pilot is busy keeping track of the ten thousand other things needed to safely navigate through modern airspace.

The more realism they build into Flight Simulator, the more I respect the work of real aviators.

Give it another year to really mature. It’s still glitchy with allot of aerodynamic and AP issues. IMO, it was released a little early.

Enjoy. 😉

 

[Macalicious2011]

Wohoo
MS just unveiled the launch trailer for Flight Simulator on Series X and S.

This game is a major reason why I bought a Series X over PS5.

I am thrilled that a launch date of Summer 2021 has finally been announced. It's epic that the game will run in 4k on Series X. Frame rate looks decent in the footage over densely populated areas.

 

[garnerx]

Wohoo
MS just unveiled the launch trailer for Flight Simulator on Series X and S.

This game is a major reason why I bought a Series X over PS5.

I am thrilled that a launch date of Summer 2020 has finally been announced. It's epic that the game will run in 4k on Series X. Frame rate looks decent in the footage over densely populated areas.

That looks fantastic. I hope they have some some way of getting proper flight controllers working with it.

If it's possible then it would make the Xbox a very good value flight sim machine. I guess they would have to be driver-free (HID compliant?) and there would need to be some way of calibrating them without having to use a separate PC.